“My main concern is that this decision sends the wrong message to the black community,” said lawyer Michael Sawaya, during a press conference Saturday at NAACP headquarters. “A judge bent over backwards for someone of white skin against someone who was killed because his skin was black.”

In his ruling released Thursday, District Judge Edward Simons said the testimony of star witness Jeannie VanVelkinburgh during Jeremiah Barnum’s March trial was so outrageous that it tainted the jury.

Instead of requiring a new trial, Simons should have let Barnum’s attorneys appeal the conviction to the Colorado Court of Appeals, Sawaya said.

“Had it gone to the Court of Appeals, three judges would have been reviewing the trial instead of just one,” Sawaya said.

VanVelkinburgh, 37, was looked upon as the Good Samaritan who tried to help Dia, who was a stranger. She also was shot and paralyzed during the attack.

But during her testimony in March, she screamed obscenities, belched loudly, told conflicting stories and sometimes refused to answer questions.

The Rev. Gill Ford said VanVelkinburgh’s behavior was from a woman who will spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair.

“Jeannie VanVelkinburgh is a victim,” Ford said. “Her life has been forever changed.”

The hate-crime garnered national attention and an outpouring of financial support for VanVelkinburgh and Dia’s family in Africa.

Barnum was convicted of the first-degree murder of Dia, who was shot while waiting for a bus Downtown on Nov. 18, 1997.

Barnum, 25, was with Nathan Thill, 21, who is still awaiting trial. Simons also said a new trial was required because jurors were shown a taped confession by Thill without properly ascertaining if Thill was available for cross-examination by defense lawyers.

The presiding judge over the trial, Federico Alvarez, allowed VanVelkinburgh to continue despite request from defense lawyers for a mistrial.

Simons took over the case when Alvarez left the bench and called VanVelkinburgh’s behavior the worst he’s seen during 24 years as a judge.

But “there have been similar cases of witness antics, and almost all are not overturned,” Sawaya said.

Attorney Anne Sulton, who recently moved to New Jersey but still helps with local NAACP issues, called upon Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter to work closely with VanVelkinburgh before the next trial.

“It would be a travesty not to allow (VanVelkinburgh) to have a part in the retrial of this murder,” she said.

NAACP members Saturday pointed to a study done in 1998 by the Colorado Supreme Court that said minorities are not treated fairly in the courts. This decision highlighted those inequities, members said.

“The decision of the court shows our criminal justice system is not responsive to non-white crime victims,” said Menola Upshaw, president of the Denver NAACP.

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